What is ACTA and why it's a problem

ACTA: how it started and how it will end. The EP has produced an easy-to-follow infograph on the legislative procedure for ACTA to help people who are confused about how a decision will be made on this controversial anti-counterfeiting agreement.

It also includes a handy timeline with important dates. The agreement has proved controversial because people are concerned about how it will affect civil rights.
The Next SOPA/PIPA Battle: A Response to Five Arguments for Copyright Access and Internet Freedom. If you are one of the many people who sent an email, made a phone call, posted on facebook, or otherwise acted in the fight over SOPA and PIPA, your call to action may come again in the not so distant future. Yes, SOPA and PIPA in their original forms are “dead,” but the push to address copyright infringement is paramount for the movie, music, computer software, and other industries. In his February 8th op-ed in the New York Times, Cary H. Sherman, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), expressed interest in “help[ing] come up with constructive alternatives” in the wake of the vast public outcry. Congressman Stephen LaTourette added that Congress would probably revisit the regulations next year.

As Anonymous protests, Internet drowns in inaccurate anti-ACTA arguments. After the Internet's decisive victory over the Stop Online Piracy Act earlier this month, online activists have been looking for their next target, and a growing number of them have chosen the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which was signed by the EU last week.

Indeed, the renewed focus on ACTA even led a group of Polish politicians to hold paper Guy Fawkes masks—the symbol of Anonymous—over their faces in protest at the way ACTA has been pushed through. In the US, over 35,000 people have signed a petition urging the White House to "end ACTA," despite the fact that it has already been signed by the US. At Ars Technica, we're as committed as anyone to defending free speech, fair use, and the open Internet against draconian new copyright laws.

ACTA treaty aims to deputize ISPs on copyrights. Internet service providers could become copyright cops encouraged to block access to suspected pirate Web sites, according to a previously secret draft treaty made public on Wednesday.

One section of the proposed digital copyright treaty says that immunity from lawsuits would be granted to Internet providers "disabling access" to pirated material and adopting a policy dealing with unauthorized "transmission of materials protected by copyright.
" If the ISPs choose not to do so, they could face legal liability. Both the Obama administration and the Bush administration had rejected requests from civil libertarians and technologists for copies of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA.

Last year, the White House went so far as to invoke an executive order saying disclosure would do "damage to the national security.
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Meet SOPA's evil twin, ACTA - Big Tech. By Dan Mitchell, contributor FORTUNE -- It's only fitting that a loud, global outcry over ACTA, an international agreement to govern intellectual property, began just after the anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA were shelved by the U.S Congress in the face of massive public pressure.

If "copyright maximalists" can't get legislation passed, writes TechDirt's Mike Masnick, "they resort to getting these things put into international trade agreements, which get significantly less scrutiny.
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If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA. Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement could endanger lives of people needing affordable medicines. “A trade agenda that limits the legitimate movement of cheap generic medicines will hit the poorest people in developing countries unfairly hard.”

Rohit Malpani Oxfam spokesperson Publié le : 29 Juin 2010 As the next round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations get underway this week [28 June - 1 July], international agency Oxfam has called on the negotiating parties to ensure the Agreement does not erect new barriers that prevent generic medicines from reaching poor countries. Trade ministers from the countries negotiating ACTA will meet in Lucerne, Switzerland to discuss controversial rules that would strengthen and expand monopolies of multinational drug companies in developing countries. The Agreement as it stands empowers multinational drug companies to ask customs officers in exporting, transit and importing countries to seize legitimate and safe generic medicines on the false grounds that they are counterfeit goods. Read more. European Parliament Member Marietje Schaake Explains How Europeans Can Stop ACTA.

What's Wrong with ACTA Week. CPDP 2012 takes place during a significant stage of the revision of the EU legal framework on data protection, thus several panels will focus on the review and the latest legislative proposals.

More than 20 panels will be organized on key issues such as geolocalization, e-identity and e-management, enforcement of copyright protection, surveillance in the workplace, accountability and communication of privacy. In addition, there will be workshops and special sessions on topics such as eDiscovery, privacy impact assessments and "privacy by design", smart metering and transborder data flows.
Copyright, Patent Monopolies Are Immoral Exploitation Of Third World. For the rich West and North, the copyright and patent monopolies are a moral nuisance and an impediment to progress, argues this anonymous guest contributor.

What Is ACTA And Why Is It A Problem?
Yesterday I noted that the anti-SOPA/PIPA crowd seemed to have just discovered ACTA.

And while I'm pleased that they're taking interest in something as problematic as ACTA, there was a lot of misinformation flowing around, so I figured that, similar to my "definitive" explainer posts on why SOPA/PIPA were bad bills (and the followup for the amended versions), I thought I'd do a short post on ACTA to hopefully clarify some of what's been floating around.

First off, ACTA, unlike SOPA/PIPA, is not "a law.
" It's a trade agreement, in which a variety of countries agree to deal with intellectual property infringement in a similar fashion. It does have some similarities to SOPA/PIPA -- such as the conflation of counterfeiting physical goods with digital copyright infringement. This is a very common tactic for folks trying to pass massively draconian, expansionary, copyright laws.